Excerpts From Al Gore's Nobel Acceptance Speech

Excerpts From Al Gore's Nobel Acceptance
Speech

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore
delivers his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize
during a ceremony in the City Hall in Oslo December 10,
2007.

So today we dumped another 70 million tons
of global warming pollution into the thin shell of
atmosphere surrounding our planet, as if it were an open
sewer. And tomorrow we will dump a slightly larger amount,
with the cumulative concentrations now trapping more and
more heat from the sun. As a result, the Earth has a fever,
and the fever is rising. The experts have told us it is not
a passing affliction that will heal by itself : Nobel
Laureate Al Gore

The mainstream press has all but
ignored Al Gore's Nobel prize acceptance speech but it was,
indeed, a call to arms, a call for global cooperation for an
action plan to combat a global warming menace that will
dramatically effect us all ~ and most certainly our
children.

Gore's words are like the canary in the mine
shaft and if we ignore his call for action any longer ~ and
the artic ice melt accelerates ~ the canary will have
already died and our long term human survival will be in
jeopardy. Want more proof ?

Top 11 Warmest Years On Record Have All Been
In Last 13 Years 13 Dec 2007 The decade of 1998-2007 is
the warmest on record, according to data sources obtained by
the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The global mean
surface temperature for 2007 is currently estimated at
0.41°C/0.74°F above the 1961-1990 annual average of
14.00°C/57.20°F.

Here are a few other known facts for
any nonbelievers ~

1. Despite growing public
awareness of global warming, the world’s carbon emissions
are rising nearly three times faster than they did in the
1990s. As a result, many scientists tell us that the
official, government-sanctioned forecasts of coming changes
are understating the threat facing the world.

2. A rise
of 2 degrees C over preindustrial temperatures is now
virtually inevitable, according to the IPCC, as the
atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide is approaching
the destabilizing level of 450 parts per million. That rise
will bring drought, hunger, disease, and flooding to
millions of people around the world.

3. Scientists
predict a steady rise in temperatures beginning in about two
years with at least half of the years between 2009 and 2019
surpassing the average global temperature in 1998, to date,
the hottest year on record.

4. Given the unexpected
speed with which Antarctica is melting, coupled with the
increasing melt rates in the Arctic and Greenland, the rate
of sea-level rise has doubled with scientists now raising
their prediction of ocean rise by century’s end from about
three feet to about six feet.

5. Scientists discovered
that a recent, unexplained surge of carbon dioxide levels in
the atmosphere is due to more greenhouse gases escaping from
trees, plants, and soils which have traditionally buffered
the warming by absorbing the gases. In the lingo of climate
scientists, carbon sinks are turning into carbon sources.
Because the added warmth is making vegetation less able to
absorb our carbon emissions, scientists expect the rate of
warming to jump substantially in the coming years.

6. The
intensity of hurricanes around the world has doubled in the
last decade. As Greg Holland of the National Center for
Atmospheric Research explained, "If you take the last
10 years, we’ve had twice the number of category-5
hurricanes than any other [10-year period] on
record."

7. In Australia, a new, permanent state
of drought in the country’s breadbasket has cut crop
yields by over 30 percent. The 1-in-1,000-year drought
exemplifies a little-noted impact of climate change. As the
atmosphere warms, it tightens the vortex of the winds that
swirl around the poles. One result is that the water that
traditionally evaporated from the Southern Ocean and rained
down over New South Wales is now being pulled back into
Antarctica drying out the southeastern quadrant of Australia
and contributing to the buildup of glaciers in the Antarctic
the only area on the planet where glaciers are
increasing.

As one prominent climate
scientist said recently, " We are seeing impacts today
that we did not expect to see until 2085."

" The distinguished
scientists with whom it is the greatest honor of my life to
share this award have laid before us a choice between two
different futures, a choice that to my ears echoes the words
of an ancient prophet: Life or death, blessings or curses,
therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may
live.

We, the human species, are confronting a planetary
emergency, a threat to the survival of our civilization that
is gathering ominous and destructive potential, even as we
gather here.

But there is hopeful news, as well. We have
the ability to solve this crisis and avoid the worst, though
not all, of its consequences, if we act boldly, decisively
and quickly.

So today we dumped another 70 million tons of
global warming pollution into the thin shell of atmosphere
surrounding our planet, as if it were an open sewer. And
tomorrow we will dump a slightly larger amount, with the
cumulative concentrations now trapping more and more heat
from the sun.

As a result, the Earth has a fever, and the
fever is rising. The experts have told us it is not a
passing affliction that will heal by itself.

We asked for
a second opinion -- and a third -- and a fourth -- and the
consistent conclusion, restated with increasing distress, is
that something basic is wrong.

We are what is wrong,
and we must make it right.

Now comes the threat of
climate crisis, a threat that is real, rising, imminent and
universal. Once again, it is the 11th hour. The penalties
for ignoring this challenge are immense and growing. And, at
some near point, would be unsustainable and
unrecoverable.

For now, we still have the power to choose
our fate. And the remaining question is only this: Have we
the will to act, vigorously and in time, or will we remain
imprisoned by a dangerous illusion?

Mahatma Gandhi the
awakened the largest democracy on Earth and forged a shared
resolve with what he called satya graha, or a truth force.
In every land, the truth, once known, has the power to set
us free.

Truth also has the power to unite us and bridge
the distance between me and we, creating the basis for
common effort and shared responsibility.

There's an
African proverb that says, "If you want to go quickly, go
alone. If you want to go far, go together." We need to go
far, quickly.

We must abandon the conceit that individual,
isolated, private actions are the answer. They can and do
help, but they will not take us far enough without
collective action.

This new consciousness requires
expanding the possibilities inherent in all humanity. The
innovators who will devise a new way to harness the sun's
energy for pennies, or invent an engine that's
carbon-negative may live in Lagos or Mumbai or Montevideo.
We must ensure that entrepreneurs and inventors everywhere
on the globe have the chance to change the world.

When we
unite for a moral purpose that is manifestly good and true,
the spiritual energy unleashed can transform us.

The
generation that defeated fascism throughout the world in the
1940s found in rising to meet their awesome challenge that
they had gained the moral authority and long-term vision to
launch the Marshall Plan, the United Nations and a new level
of global cooperation and foresight that unified Europe and
facilitated the emergence of democracy in Japan, Germany,
Italy and much of the world.

One of their visionary
leaders said, "It is time we steered by the stars, and not
by the lights of every passing ship."

The world now needs
an alliance, especially of those nations that weigh heaviest
in the scales where Earth is in the balance.

I salute
Europe and Japan for the steps they've taken in recent years
to meet the challenge, and the new government in Australia,
which has made solving the climate crisis its first
priority.

But the outcome will be decisively influenced by
two nations that are now failing to do enough: the United
States and China.

While India is also growing fast in
importance, it should be absolutely clear that it is the two
largest CO2 emitters, and most of all my own country, that
will need to make the boldest moves or stand accountable
before history for their failure to act.

Both countries
should stop using the other's behavior as an excuse for
stalemate, and instead develop an agenda for mutual survival
in a shared global environment.

The great Norwegian
playwright Henrik Ibsen wrote, "One of these days the
younger generation will come knocking at my door."

The
future is knocking at our door right now. Make no mistake:
The next generation will ask us one of two questions. Either
they will ask "What were you thinking? Why didn't you act?"
or they will ask instead, "How did you find the moral
courage to rise and successfully resolve a crisis that so
many said was impossible to solve?"

We have everything we
need to get started, save perhaps political will. But
political will is a renewable resource, so let us renew it,
and let us say together, "We have a purpose. We are many.
For this purpose we will rise and we will act."

Allen L Roland is a practicing
psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily
political and social commentary on his weblog and website
allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio
show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net

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